This is how you can help (warning: distressing content)
- byAnna McClelland

27 Feb
2018

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While we go about our daily lives, children are dying by the dozen in Syria. In what the UN Secretary-General has described as “hell on earth”, more than 100 children were killed in Eastern Ghouta last week alone, at the hands of forces loyal to the country’s President, Bashar al-Assad.

The latest horrific update from the war-torn country is this: reports are emerging of a chlorine gas attack on civilians in the first days of a UN-ordered ceasefire. The Washington Post has shared footage released by the Syrian American Medical Society showing dying toddlers caught up in the conflict struggling to breathe, with medical staff attributing their symptoms to chlorine gas exposure.

A Syrian child receives treatment for a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift clinic on 25th February, 2018.

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Syrian children receive treatment for a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift clinic on 25th February, 2018.

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Just last week, UNICEF issued a history-making blank statement expressing outrage at the numbers of Syrian children dying in Eastern Ghouta and Damascus.

“No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones,” it reads, followed by a completely blank page, save a footnote: “UNICEF is issuing this blank statement. We no longer have the words to describe children’s suffering and our outrage.”

“Do those inflicting the suffering still have words to justify their barbaric acts?”

It’s time to help. Here’s what you can do now.

A displaced Syrian man carries his child at a refugee camp on 26th February, 2018.

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UNICEF Syria Crisis Appeal

UNICEF is dedicated to helping the eight million children in need of emergency aid in Syria, delivering emergency supplies, protection and trauma counselling to those living in the country’s most dangerous regions, as well as those fleeing for their lives with their families. $71 could provide eight blankets; $93 can provide 2450 micronutrient sachets to restore a child’s health. Donate here.

The United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) exists to provide humanitarian aid for refugees. Just $35 will sink a well to provide much-needed drinking water for families in a Syrian refugee camp; $480 will house a family of five in an all-weather tent. Donate here.

A Syrian medic holds the body of a child who dyed in the chemical attack at a makeshift clinic on 25th February, 2018.

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Australian Red Cross is committed to providing care in even the most dangerous parts of the country, from emergency health care to food parcels to safe drinking water and first aid kits. Donate here.

Medicins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders helps to run field hospitals and clinics across Syria, providing urgent medical care to adults and children caught up in the conflict. According to their website, the war has destroyed Syria’s previously well-functioning healthcare system. Donate here.